WHAT a great to start the season with a fantastic win for the Giants at the Millennium Magic Weekend!

Not only was it a good win for the team, but the weekend itself has been hailed a success by rugby league chiefs, who announced this week the official attendance was over 60,000.

The way we won bodes well for our Super League XVI campaign and I’m sure Warrington will be a force to be reckoned with this year, as they have been in the last couple of seasons.

Our club’s strength-in-depth has really been added to this year.

Last week saw the arrival of Jamie Simpson from Australian club South Sydney Rabbitohs and Dale Ferguson (pictured below) from Wakefield Wildcats, further adding to the quality of our squad.

Jamie comes to the club with a scoring record of 14 tries from 36 games, and I’m looking forward to seeing him in the claret and gold.

Dale has been an established Super League player for what seems like ages now and is still only 22. He managed to score twice for Wakefield last week in Cardiff, so I’m sure he’ll be another great acquisition.

It’s often been said that competition for places brings the best out of a team and, if that’s the case, this year should be a good one for the Giants.

Unfortunately, this competition for places means some people have to miss out, and I’ve been one of the guys missing out on game time so far. Obviously I’m bitterly disappointed, but I’m sure my opportunity will come soon enough.

Our new arrival Dale has, of course, come at the detriment of Wakefield who went into administration last week.

Fortunately for Wakefield – and I have to add rugby league as a whole – a new owner and financial backer has come forward to help guide the famous club to better times.

I think it’s important that as a rugby league community we support the club, because it would be the easiest thing in the world to be negative and go on about how poorly the previous owners had run the club.

The reality is that any club going into administration, let alone one with a great history like Wakefield, is a huge blow to the sport of rugby league. It isn’t a great advert for the game and it’s important that it doesn’t happen again.